It turns out the two have more in common than they may realize, but the pressure to be perfect distorts their bond. “Devi through that the entire season, obviously towards the guys, but also her mother and her cousin and her friends who she lets down when Eleanor says, ‘You really Devi-ed this one up.’”ĭevi, who is still working through the trauma of her father’s death, is repeatedly labeled “crazy” for her behavior, while Aneesa worries about being reduced to her eating disorder. “You’re like, ‘Crap, I messed that up’ or ‘That was a really bad situation’ or just trying to be a good daughter or just trying to be a good friend,” she said. Ramakrishnan explained that she relates to Devi’s arc the most when it comes to “that feeling of wanting to always be perfect”: from doing well on exams to checking the correct boxes on her COVID-19 screening paperwork she identifies with that fear of failure. And I think these two girls do such a beautiful job portraying it on screen.” “As a young Indian teenager, it is brutal. “Aneesa is great at code-switching from being with aunties to being with Devi in a way that I think Devi is envious of, because that is a skill that is something that is very hard to do to, like, occupy many different roles in society,” Munir said. Ultimately, even Devi and Aneesa’s conflict can be traced to the broader pressures both face to balance being “Indian enough” and “American enough,” not personal animus. (“I’ll gas you up, Megan,” Ramakrishnan said in the midst of complimenting her costar, noting that having two South Asian teens on the show was “awesome.”) While tension may simmer onscreen between Devi and Aneesa, there’s offscreen love and mutual respect between Ramakrishnan and Suri. “But I think what I was pulling from it was that she clearly came from a space, her previous school, where she was bullied for her eating disorder - and what we come to find out, as she says to Devi in the locker in my first episode, that it’s really nice to have an Indian kid once in a while.” “Aneesa’s whole thing is that she’s just easygoing and she likes to make friends and just be someone that people can sort of gravitate towards,” Suri said. While Devi is threatened by Aneesa replacing her, Aneesa sees it as an opportunity to befriend someone who understands her. Referring to a male classmate who problematically refers to Aneesa as “Devi 2.0,” Ramakrishnan said, “n this case, saying, ‘I have spent years knowing Trent and Trent still doesn’t know, but now he’s talking to about soccer.’ But it’s so crazy because you want Devi to realize quicker, ‘Girl! You’re just jealous,’ and she knows it.” Ramakrishnan added that for South Asian people, what contributes to the myth of only one is when someone finally achieves an esteemed position and “they’re exhausted and someone else knocks at their door ready to claim what they fought hard for”: “It’s like, ‘Excuse me. “But Devi is someone with good intentions who makes bad decisions very often.” “When someone arrives at school and starts getting all the things that she wants and looks like her, naturally she’s going to feel jealous and feel competitive in a way that I think is wrongheaded,” Munir said. Shapiro (Adam Shapiro) accidentally calls Aneesa “Devi,” for instance, he shows that he can’t tell them apart and immediately reinforces Devi’s fear of being “replaced” and becoming a social outcast. Munir’s episode, like much of the season, captures the consequences when an overall lack of diversity leads to people of color being treated as tokens.
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